According to new filings from the former president’s legal team, Donald Trump is struggling — significantly — in his attempts to secure a bond after a massive civil fraud judgment in a case brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James. The penalties on the former president, when including interest, approach half a billion dollars.
The bond is necessary under established practice to stave off collections by the state prosecutor as Trump pursues appeals. And James already indicated that she is prepared to potentially pursue Trump’s real estate holdings to cover his financial obligations in the event that opportunity presents itself. Per the new Trump filings, some 30 surety companies have left the former president hanging as he’s evidently pursued a bond in the full amount required.
“Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility,'” the Trump team said, as highlighted by NBC News. “These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers.”
The current deadline is next week. Trump’s team pointed to costs including fees associated with just obtaining a bond at all and bond companies’ demands to use cash or “cash equivalents” as collateral for the deal. The Trump team’s latest proposal is for lifting the requirements that the ex-president even put forward a bond, pointing to the known real estate holdings as security enough for future possibilities of Trump paying up.
“Such assets are impossible to secrete or dispose of surreptitiously, leaving the plaintiff effectively secured during the pendency of an appeal,” they said in court.
In connection with the case from James, in which she alleged a years-long pattern of misrepresenting the value of business assets that produced financial benefits for the former president and figures close to him, Trump has claimed astronomical values for those real estate holdings. That includes arbitrarily suggesting Mar-a-Lago in Florida could be worth as much as $1.8 billion, putting it among the highest-valued properties worldwide.
